


Before there was Finch and Reese

by Joaquina



Category: Person Of Interest - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Harold Finch - character, John Reese - Freeform, Person of Interest, Poi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-01
Updated: 2013-01-01
Packaged: 2017-11-23 05:26:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/618591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joaquina/pseuds/Joaquina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is for the tumblr Irrelevant Gift Exchange.<br/>My gift for avengerwriter.  I hope you enjoy my gift for you.</p>
<p>The frame of mind of Harold Finch and John Reese before they met.  This takes place is pre-pilot.</p>
<p>I do not have a betta reader, editor, or a person to go over my work.  The mistakes are all mine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Before there was Finch and Reese

**Author's Note:**

  * For [avengerwriter](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=avengerwriter), [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



I’m Harold. I’ve had a lot of surnames over the years but Harold is the name I kept pretty much all my life. I can still remember a time when I lead a normal life. Growing up in the Midwest was pretty boring but my time at MIT catapulted me to the fast track of the cooperate world. Nathan Ingram and I spent many years making us rich. Nathan had the head for business where I excelled with software engineering and produced the products. I still gain revenue from an off shoot of the company “Ingram Micro”. To this day Ingram Micro has offices all over the world.

After the towers fell I believe that day changed the lives of everyone. Not just Americans but worldwide. I wasn’t even aware the towers were struck until I actually left the darkness of my work environment. Because I was working on something big I worked in a secure windowless area and had no clue the mayhem going on in the city that day. For months after nine eleven happened I buried myself in my work and became further isolated.

It was after the President of the United States signed the Provide Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism or what is known as the Patriot Act into law I knew I had to do something. The Patriot Act granted the government the right to listen in on everyone’s phone calls and monitor emails of American citizens legally and I wanted to provide a way in which this could be done without violating the privacy of the American people. For months I worked on several ideas of what could be of use to help the government gathers information about potential terror attacks but also at the same time protect American citizen’s rights to privacy. Being a very private person myself I wanted to make sure there was a way the government could not abuse the Patriot Act.

The concept of the Machine was born as the result to protect every American’s right to privacy but give the government the ability to stop any planned out terrorist attack. To build a Machine of unimaginable power to spy on the American public was no small matter. This project took a lot of sacrifice on my part to make sure not only from an operational standpoint but a way had to be made so the government had no way of access the power of such a machine. The Machine had to provide a way to gather the needed information of possible terror threats but not at the sacrifice of the privacy of all Americans. The Machine had to be autonomous when completed, to be able to sustain itself without intervention from anyone, even me, the creator. This was the only way I knew to keep the government from abusing this power. I knew Nathan thought I was insane. He told me this could not be done. Nathan’s pessimism pushed me to prove my best friend wrong. The finished project did prove Nathan wrong and the Machine was sold to the U.S. government for the price of one dollar.

During the development of the Machine I had to teach it the difference between relevant information and irrelevant information. The Machine had to provide the information in time for action to be taken to advert a terrorist attack so it could serve the greater good. However the Machine also provided information of ordinary citizens who were either the perpetrator or victim of an upcoming violent crime. All those people’s numbers would come up and have nothing to do with a terrorist attack so I had to make the decision of how to separate the two sets of information. Finally it was decided at 12 AM every night what became known as the irrelevant list of information was to be deleted for that day.

The irrelevant list of ordinary citizens’ social security numbers haunted me. Slowly as the project came to a close I became more and more obsessed of what could be done with the “Irrelevant list”. I was not able to sleep well for a long time. Many nights as 12:01 AM came I knew the irrelevant list was deleted and the thought of those people, who were about to be part of a violent crime, ate at my conscious. Before the Machine was handed over to the government I made sure the machine still had the ability to communicate the irrelevant list to me. Every night at 12 AM the social security numbers from the irrelevant list was still deleted but before this happened the social security numbers were communicated to me through a complex communication system utilizing a code only known by myself. That at is all I get, the code to figure out a nine digit number which belongs to a person in need of help. The Machine is locked down so tight not even I have any access to it anymore. The communication in code is the only link I have left to the Machine.

I sacrificed any kind of personal life to tend to the irrelevant list. Nathan became ever more insistent with what I have been doing was dangerous. I realized Nathan was correct with my work being dangerous because shortly after I had admitted to him I tended the irrelevant list Nathan was killed. I realized that anyone who knew of the machines existence was in danger and that terrified me. It was a hard decision for me to stage my own death and giving up any kind of conventional life I was living but that is what I had to do to keep everyone I loved safe.

For many months I tended the irrelevant list alone. Right away it became apparent after my accident which resulted with injuries leaving me with limited mobility; I could not tend the numbers successfully. Tending the irrelevant list was extremely involved with the surveillance and physical demands of such a job and I simply could not keep up. I kept seeing the same numbers listed over and over, which were mostly women and I realized that most people’s numbers would repeat were people that were going to be killed by someone close to them, someone who was living with them. I am ashamed that it took me a while to figure that out.

I began to research for a person who could be the eyes, ears and physical presence in the help with resolving the issues of the irrelevant list. I needed someone to help me be there in time to save lives and to stop the crime that was already in play. When I was in New Rochelle rehabilitating I realized after Jessica Arndt’s number came up for the final time and she was killed I could not work the numbers alone anymore. 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I’m John. Over the years I have used many aliases but I always insisted that I use the first name given to me by my mother. I have used some pretty inventive last names but my favorite used was Reese. My old CIA handler gave me that name. She was a very smart and beautiful woman and taught me a hell of a lot.

At this point in my life my history is not that important. I have always been a servant to the people. First when I joined the Army and served in Special Forces and lastly after nine eleven I worked for the CIA. Working with the United States government has been a large part of my life and I always felt this was God’s calling for me. I have always felt the need to protect. Whether it was for my country or for someone I loved I have always protected people.

It was during my time serving in the Middle East I began to realize the government was broken in many ways. I ended up leaving the Army for the love of a woman. I quit the Army for Jessica because when you find that one person that connects you to the world you become someone different, someone better and Jessica made me a better man. The plan was to buy a boat and sail around the world, just Jessica and I.

That plan was destroyed on September eleventh two thousand and one when the largest terrorist attack in US history was successfully conducted on American soil. Almost three thousand people died that day and it was very apparent to me that changes had to be made to help make America safe from terrorist attacks. I had to do a lot of soul searching but I realized I had to be part to help make American safe again. Jessica understood my need to do this but because I didn’t know how long I would be gone I told her not to wait for me. That was the biggest mistake of my life. 

During my attempt to find a way to serve my country I debated reenlisting into the Army but I met a man named Mark Snow. He was a recruiter for the CIA and my work with the Army was of great interest with the needs of the CIA. It didn’t take much time for me to realize there was not much difference between Special Forces black ops and working as a CIA operative. Not only did I serve the CIA in a non-official capacity or as a NOC, but I was trained and served in the most non official way the Agency operated under. My missions were considered so dark and so deep there are no records of them to ever of happened. After nine eleven the government went through great lengths, some illegal, to perform the work needed to keep American safe. I learned too late my involvement did little to help keep America safe.

Instead I learned enhanced and extreme interrogation techniques and am able to extract needed information using the cruelest of methods. The government told me these techniques were needed to extract information but the truth is enhanced and extreme interrogation techniques never worked well. The CIA also honed my training so I became a very efficient and talented assassin. I never really liked killing others but I am very good at it.

While I was in Turkey during some down time I checked one of my old cell phone SIM cards and was very surprised and concerned when Jessica, who was married to Peter Arndt, left me a disturbing message. I asked for immediate leave back to the US but instead was ordered to Ordos China for a retrieval mission. Not only was I denied leave but was ordered to retire my partner Cara Stanton during the Ordos mission. It is true what they say spies don’t have a retirement plan or get to enjoy the golden years. It seems not many spies even survive to become old.

The mission in Ordos, China was my last with the CIA. Not only was I ordered to eliminate Stanton but she was ordered to kill me. There is no louder message from the government that I was no longer useful to them than ordering my partner of 5 years to kill me. It probably was because I knew too many of the Agency’s’ secrets. My involvement was so secret and so deep the government could not risk keeping me alive. I barely survived the Ordos mission but I was able to get back to the United States alive.

Jessica died before I could get back. I never felt so helpless in my life with the inability to save her. I was too late to save her and now she is gone. I learned her husband abused her and ended up killing her though that abuse. I did not handle my confrontation with Peter Arndt well and ended up homeless to keep myself off the grid. I tried to drink myself to death but that didn’t work too well. The safest I ever felt was when I was anonymous.

I spent 4 months drinking myself to oblivion every night while living as a homeless man. If it was not for Joan, a woman in the homeless encampment who looked out for me, I probably would have been dead by now. It seems my suicide by whisky is not working fast enough nor is it very efficient way to kill myself. My country betrayed me, the love of my life is dead, and I no longer have a purpose to live anymore. I realized I might need to take on a more effective way of ending my life.

The night I ended up in a scuffle with a gang while riding the subway started a chain of events that brought me a purpose.


End file.
